#bitmethod

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EPISODE 032 - Magazines and Memes with Urban Plains' Skylar Bergl and Joe Stych

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Amanda and Scott are joined by two Drake University seniors who recently completed work on Urban Plains Magazine, an all-digital publication produced as part of a senior capstone class. We explore the popularity of iPad's on college campuses, the plusses and minuses of digital consumption and production, and where digital publishing is heading.

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Episode Notes and Links:

Urban Plains Magazine website (with links to download the iPad app)

Unimpressed Astronaut on QuickMeme

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EPISODE 031 - The Best Chefs Have the Worst Tools (aka The Wine Episode)

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Amanda, Dan, and Scott talk about tools, Tiny Tower, cutting drywall, craftsmanship, and what building things in the real world can teach us about building them in the digital world. Also, we get really really drunk on wine.

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Episode Notes and Links

NimbleBit, makers of Tiny Tower

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EPISODE 030 - Talk is Cheap, Even in Space AKA Enemies vs. Obstacles

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Dan, Igor, and Scott sit down to talk through lessons they've learned playing a new-to-them board game based on the TV show Battlestar Galactica. The game, much like the TV show, is all about deception, secrecy, and subterfuge.

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Episode Notes and Links:

Battlestar Galactica Game on Board Game Geek

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Episode 029 - How to Critique Your Wife's Cooking with Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry

Amanda and Scott double-rainbow Skype all the way across the sky continental U.S. with designers Adam Connor and Aaron Irizarry in an episode about critique. Adam and Aaron don't work together, but they are both passionate devotees of critique as a life skill and have been touring a presentation they built together on the subject. We get into critique with clients, getting over the fear of being critiqued, showing your work early and often, and even, yes, how to critique your wife's cooking (hint: time and place, time and place).

Episode Notes and Links:

Adam Connor's Website

Aaron Irizarry's Website

Mad Pow

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EPISODE 028 - The Cultural Crossroads of the Midwest (TM) with RAYGUN's Mike Draper

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First off, the #MikeDraperforMayor Storify is pretty much required reading before listening to this episode.

Short version: we started a semi-serious, semi-joking campaign to write-in Mike Draper as Mayor of Des Moines on election day 2011. Mike is the 29-year-old owner of RAYGUN, an apparel brand and t-shirt store with locations in Des Moines and Iowa City. While Mike didn't win, the short-lived social media campaign was damned entertaining -- heck, we might have even learned something from it.

Mike came in to chat with Dan, Neil and Scott about the campaign, tax increment financing, people with no sense of humor, and more.

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Episode Notes and Links:

The Saga of Mike Draper for Mayor

Mike's Concession

RAYGUN Website

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Amanda Morrow

Interactive Designer, BitMethod

Who are you, and what do you do?

I'm the Interactive Designer at BitMethod. We build web and mobile apps for clients as well as ourselves.

My job is to map out and design each of our projects with an emphasis on user experience and simplicity. This usually entails capturing ideas and suggestions floating about in our conversations and making them visual using sketches, wireframes or mockups.

What hardware are you using?

At the office, I push pixels on a 27" iMac accompanied by an Apple Magic Mouse and Wireless Keyboard. At home, I just recently switched from a 15" MacBook Pro to a 13" MacBook Air running OS X Lion.

This may come as a surprise, but I do not own an iPhone. I'm the only Android user at BitMethod, but I very much enjoy my Samsung Epic 4G. As for sketching, the coffee cup on my desk is never low on black Paper Mate Flair Felt-Tip Marker Pens and dry-erase markers. So, if you’re looking to get me something for Christmas (Hint, hint . . . markers!).

And what software?

I have a love/hate relationship with Adobe CS5. It's wonderful software but sometimes I push it too hard and it fights back. I spend most of my time using Illustrator for mockups and all other design projects. I tend to only use Photoshop for editing photos but occasionally will use it to apply effects and filters not found in Illustrator. For wireframing, I use InDesign. Master pages and the ability to create interactive .pdf’s comes in handy for rough prototyping.

Typically, I have two browsers running, Chrome and Safari. My email, calendar, chat and documents are all run through Google. Everyone at BitMethod saves their files to Dropbox and we just recently started using Trello to manage all our projects. It’s a great, simple scrum board-type web app. Also, don’t forget to backup, kids! I use BackBlaze for that.

What would be your dream setup?

I’m pretty happy with my current set-up. I went a long time without nice things so I’m incredibly grateful to have all the hardware and software I need. But if I absolutely had to choose, I could always use more cupcakes and kittens on my desk.